The present invention relates to providing knowledge or information at a point and time of need. In particular, but without limitation, the present invention further relates to associating continuing education requirements with the delivery of knowledge or information at the point of need.
Although the present invention is not to be so limited, one particular context to which the present invention can be applied is found in the field of health care. In health care, licensed professionals, including physicians, are required to earn continuing medical education (CME) credits in order to maintain their licensure. The general purpose of such requirements is to provide some level of assurance that health care providers are current in their medical knowledge. Despite CME requirements, problems remain in ensuring that health care providers have access to and use current medical knowledge in their practice.
Some of these problems relate to the delivery method used. In particular, traditional CME delivery methods are inflexible. Traditional CME delivery includes seminars, CD training, and on-line training. None of these delivery methods can consistently assist a health care provider with information during his or her clinical practice daily routine. The content does not have fine enough granularity to allow the health care provider to find and use the information during a clinic visit with a patient. Merely exposing a health care provider to medical knowledge does not really provide any assurance that the health care provider can internalize the information and incorporate it into their every day practice.
A further inflexibility of current CME delivery methods relates to timing. Seminar and conference delivery methods offer health care professionals little or no control as to the timing of the delivery of the information. CD training and on-line training increase the control, but often require large time commitments (i.e. more than one hour) to complete accredited tasks. Health care providers are typically busy professionals who often have difficulties in scheduling the requisite time for continuing medical education.
Despite that health care professionals are generally required to fulfill CME requirements, medical errors still occur. In fact, it is estimated that between 44,000 to 98,000 Americans in hospitals die every year as a result of medical errors. If health care providers were always aware of relevant and important guidelines relative to a particular patient condition, then these medical errors would be reduced.
A further problem with continuing medical education is that generally it is not personalized to a particular health care provider. Therefore a health care provider can receive continuing medical education credits for participation in continuing medical education that is largely irrelevant to the particular health care provider's practice or else can receive continuing medical education credit even though the continuing medical education did not expose the health care provider to anything the health care provider did not already know. Thus, there are significant problems regarding continuing medical education. These problems involve providing the proper information to a health care provider when they need it in order to improve medical care while effectively using the health care providers time.
It has been recognized that computer-based decision-support systems can be used to assist in determining proper diagnosis and selecting appropriate medical procedures. One problem with many such systems is that they are designed to replace clinical judgment as opposed to assisting and improving clinical judgment. Such systems, although directed towards improving patient care, do not necessarily improve a health care provider's medical knowledge. Further, there are concerns that such systems can possibly result in medical errors when the health care provider's judgment is replaced.
Although the above problems have been discussed in the context of continuing medical education of health care providers, in order to improve quality of health care, these same problems are present in other areas where proper or current education is fundamental in improving quality of service. For example, such problems are present in information technology, airline pilots, mechanics, lawyers, and other areas. These are merely a few examples of professions or occupations, where the quality of service is related to the ability to access and use the most current knowledge or information in performing a service. The present invention is not limited to any particular profession, occupation, or type of service. Therefore, a need exists in the art for an improved method and system for delivery of continuing education at the point of need.
A general object, feature or advantage of the present invention is the provision of a method and system for continuing education delivery that improves competency.
A further object, feature or advantage of the present invention is the provision of a method and system for delivering continuing education that presents information at the point of need so that errors can be avoided.
Yet another object, feature or advantage of the present invention is a method and system for point of need continuing education delivery that provides relevant and timely continuing education.
A further object, feature or advantage of the present invention is the provision of a method and system for point of need continuing education delivery that allows for tracking of errors, i.e. knowledge weakness areas.
A still further object, feature or advantage of the present invention is the provision of a method and system for point of need continuing education delivery that breaks down continuing education into manageable granules of information.
Yet another object, feature, or advantage of the present invention is the provision of a method and system for providing continuing education that awards credits for review of manageable granules of information.
A still further object, feature or advantage of the present invention is the provision of a method and system for providing continuing education that provides a follow-up to the point of need delivery of continuing education.
These as well as other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following specification and claims.